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Blog, Books, Nichijo

Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo

I first heard the name Nichijo Shaka in 2017. It came up in a discussion about a one-time shami of Rev. Kenjo Igarashi of the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. As far as I know this was  Rev. Igarashi’s first and last attempt to train an American to become a Nichiren Shu priest. It did not end well. When the shami left, he became a follower of Nichijo Shaka of Hawaii. The impression I was given was that  Nichijo Shaka was a Nichiren priest who sought to strip out everything Japanese from Nichiren Buddhism and to create an American Lotus Sutra teaching. He called his effort the Buddhist School of America. I imagined a renegade Japanese priest running an unsanctioned operation. I was wrong on several counts.

nichijo-bookcover
Available for purchase on Amazon

Wanting to know more, I found Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo, a book published in 2014. Reading the book in 2021, I learned that Nichijo Shaka, who was born John David Provoo on Aug. 6, 1917, in San Francisco, had another connection to the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. Before Provoo sailed to Minobu in 1966 to complete his training as a Nichiren Shu priest, he spent the last five months of 1965 studying with Bishop Nippo Aoyagi Shaku, who served in the Sacramento Church from 1964  to 1968. According to the book, Provoo conducted Sunday school in English at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church, lectured to English-speaking groups outside the church and worked at a local hospital during that period.

I have tried to find collaborating information on the life of John Provoo and especially Nichijo Shaka’s efforts to create an American Buddhism, but I haven’t found anything. No one who attends the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church today remembers a blue-eyed Caucasian priest-in-training running the Sunday school 55 years ago. Rev. Igarashi, who came to Sacramento in 1989, dismisses Nichijo Shaka as a trouble-maker. I’m told followers of Nichijo Shaka still gather, but I’ve been unable to find one who who is willing to talk to me about his teachings. Nichijo Shaka died in 2001.

But these connections to Sacramento are not what makes John David Provoo famous. As the book’s back-cover blurb explains:

This is the personal saga of John David Provoo. In 1940, the young American Buddhist studying at an ancient monastery in Japan was urged by the U.S. Embassy to return home. In 1941, he enlisted in the US Army in San Francisco, and was soon stationed in the Philippines. Within six months of the outbreak of war, he was captured along with thousands of others on the island fortress of Corregidor, in the mouth of Manila Bay.

In the early months after capture, the Japanese used him as an interpreter, a role that created suspicion in the minds of some that he had become a collaborator. After years of privations in POW camps in Taiwan, he was moved to Bunkwa Camp in downtown Tokyo, and forced to make propaganda broadcasts with others, including Iva Toguri, from Radio Tokyo, until the end of the war.

In the post war years, he was continually harassed by the FBI throughout a second Army enlistment. In 1949, he was discharged, taken immediately into federal custody and charged with treason for events on Corregidor and taking part in radio programs. His trial was foreshadowed by the conviction of Iva Toguri, cast by the government as the non-existent “Tokyo Rose”.

This book is his personal narrative of the events that led up to his prosecution and his final return to the training for the Buddhist priesthood.

Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo is written as a first-person tale told by John David Provoo, but the final version of the book was rewritten by John Oliver. Here’s the About the Author blurb:

John Oliver earned Bachelor degrees in Political Science and Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1969. In the 1970s, he discovered his passion for homebuilding, and has spent most of his life as an artisan building contractor in California and Hawaii. In a chance encounter with Bishop Nichijo Shaka on the rural Big Island in 1983, he found a direct use for his liberal arts education. His collaboration with Rev. Shaka resulted in the biography, “Nichijo”, copyrighted in 1986, but never published. In 2014, living in semi-retirement in Sonoma County, California, he finally found the time to complete the thoughtful rewrite that was begun nearly 30 years before. “Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo” was released in October of 2014.

Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo, p248

 

Having read the book for a second time, I’m going to attempt to set aside by journalistic skepticism, and accept as fact what is written in Nichijo: The Testimony of John Provoo. There are some fascinating aspects of how Provoo came to be a Nichiren Shu Buddhist priest.

Table of Contents

Nichijo: The Path to the Lotus Sutra
Nichijo: The Disciple Finds His Master
Nichijo and Nippo
Nichijo: A Novice Priest at War
Nichijo: The Right Reverend
Nichijo: The Buddhist School of America
Nichijo: The Missing Piece of Provoo’s Story

Nichijo: Errata

Daily Dharma, d31b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 27, 2023

Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi (Perfect Enlightenment). Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

These lines are part of a story told by the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha uses this story to remind us of how much benefit we get from our teachers. When we see the world with the eyes of the Buddha, and know that he is always thinking of how to lead us, we can find innumerable teachers, and know to show our gratitude to them.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 32

Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 32 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered Universal-Sage’s question, we consider Universal Sage’s vow.

“World-Honored One! The bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās or upāsikās who seek, keep, read, recite and copy this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma in the defiled world in the later five hundred years after [your extinction], if they wish to study and practice this sūtra, should concentrate their minds [on study and practice] strenuously for three weeks. When they complete [the study and practice of] three weeks, I will mount a white elephant with six tusks, and appear before them with my body which all living beings wish to see, together with innumerable Bodhisattvas surrounding me. I will expound the Dharma to them, show them the Way, teach them, benefit them, and cause them to rejoice. I also will give them dhārāṇi spells. If they obtain these dhārāṇis, they will not be killed by nonhuman beings or captivated by women. Also I myself will always protect them. World-Honored One! Allow me to utter these dhārāṇis spells!”

Thereupon he uttered spells before the Buddha:

“Atandai (1), tandahatai (2), tandahatei (3), tandakusharei (4), tandashudarei (5), shudarei (6), shudarahachi (7), botsudahasennei (8), sarubadarani-abatani (9), sarubabasha-abataru (10), hu­abatani (11), sōgyahabishani (12), sōgyaneku-kyadani (13), asogi (14), sōgyahagyadai. (15), teirei-ada-sōgyatorya-aratei-haratei (16), sarubasogya-sammaji-kyarandai (17), sarubadaruma­shuharisettei (18), saru-basatta-rodakyōsharya-atogyadai (19), shin-abikiridaitei (20).”

[He said to the Buddha:]

“World-Honored One! It is by my supernatural powers, know this, that a Bodhisattva can hear these dhārāṇis. Anyone who keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [while it is] propagated in the Jambudvipa, should think, ‘I can keep [this sūtra] only by the supernatural powers of Universal-­Sage.’ Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas [in his previous existence]. He will be caressed on the head by the hands of the Tathāgatas. Anyone who copies this sūtra will be reborn in the Heaven of the Trāyastriṃs̒a Gods immediately after his present life. On that occasion, eighty-four thousand goddesses will come and receive him, making many kinds of music. A crown of the seven treasures will be put on his head, and he will enjoy himself among the ladies in waiting. Needless to say, [more merits will be given to] the person who [not only copies this sūtra but also] keeps, reads and recites it, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it. Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, and understands the meanings of it, will be given helping hands by one thousand Buddhas immediately after his present life. He will be fearless. He will not fall into any evil region. He will be reborn in the Tusiita Heaven. There he will go to Maitreya Bodhisattva who, adorned with the thirty-two marks, will be surrounded by great Bodhisattvas, and attended on by hundreds of thousands of billions of goddesses. He will be given the benefits of these merits. Therefore, anyone who has wisdom should copy this sūtra with all his heart, cause others to copy it, and also keep, read and recite it, memorize it correctly, and act according to it.

“World-Honored One! I will protect this sūtra with my supernatural powers so that it may be propagated and not be destroyed in the Jambudvipa after your extinction.”

The Daily Dharma from July 5, 2023, offers this:

Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas [in his previous existence].

Universal-Sage (Fugen, Samantabhadra) Bodhisattva makes this declaration to the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. In our mundane practice of the Wonderful Dharma, it is easy to overlook our place in the world and the benefits we bring to all beings. The magnificent character of Universal-Sage reminds us that despite our feelings of insignificance, we are the result of countless lives of practice and equal in our merits to this great Bodhisattva.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

Lee: Tanaka

Gauging Tanaka’s Importance

One might well argue that Tanaka Chigaku’s principal importance lies not so much in what he said but in whom he influenced. Although most of his followers were humble folk, rather far down on the ladder of success, however it might be measured, a fairly large, and surprisingly varied, group of important people counted themselves among his disciples: Takayama Chogyū, who though tragically short-lived is now reckoned to have been one of the Meiji period’s pre-eminent scholars; Anesaki Masaharu, perhaps Japan’s most influential interpreter of Buddhism to Western readers; Miyazawa Kenji, a farmer-poet of sublime genius; Inoue Nisshō, a radical terrorist active in a number of ultranationalist plots in the 1930s; and Ishiwara Kanji, an army officer who regarded the Mukden Incident, which he helped plan, as the first stage in the spreading of the Kingly Way throughout the world.

But what inspired these people and led to the achievements in which Tanaka took pride was Nichirenism, and so we return to the paradoxical fact that what makes Tanaka, basically anti-intellectual, important derives from his scholarship. Like other Buddhists, Tanaka was able to find in the teachings of Nichiren, with their chauvinistic overtones, ample support for the secular government of Japan. But he went beyond this, and it was in his ideas of syncretism, his reinterpretation of Nichiren Buddhism in Shinto terms, that he made his unique contribution to modern Japanese life. He imbued Buddhism with a nationalistic bias that made it possible not only for an individual believer to support his political leaders unswervingly, but for the Buddhist church itself, as a vehicle to facilitate the achievement of political ends, to assert itself positively in the secular world from which it had long been excluded. The impact of Nichirenism upon mainstream Nichiren Buddhism cannot be accurately measured, but it was certainly felt.

Nichiren and Nationalism

Daily Dharma, d4b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 26, 2023

The Buddhas seldom appear in the worlds.
It is difficult to meet them.
Even when they do appear in the worlds,
They seldom expound the Dharma.

The Buddha proclaims these verses in Chapter Two of the Lotus Sūtra. Later in the Sūtra he explains that in reality he became enlightened far in the past and will continue to lead all beings to enlightenment far into the future. The reason the Buddhas appear so rarely is not because they conceal themselves. It is because we do not recognize them for what they are. We cannot see the air we breathe, but it is crucial for our lives. Because of this we often take it for granted, unless we are so afflicted, or the air is so poisoned that we cannot breathe. Then we are aware of it. Likewise, the Buddha Dharma is available to us all the time.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 31

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

Day 31 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the Buddha’s prediction for the King Wonderful-Adornment, we consider the King’s teachers.

“Thereupon the king abdicated from the throne in favor of his younger brother, renounced the world, and with his wife, two sons, and attendants, practiced the Way under that Buddha. After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samādhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’

“Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Great King! Do you see these two sons of yours, or not? They made offerings to six trillion and five hundred thousand billion Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges, in their previous existence. They attended on those Buddhas respectfully. They kept the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma under those Buddhas, and caused the people of wrong views to have right views out of their compassion towards them.

The Daily Dharma for July 25, 2022, offers this:

Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi (Perfect Enlightenment). Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

These lines are part of a story told by the Buddha in Chapter Twenty-Seven of the Lotus Sūtra. The Buddha uses this story to remind us of how much benefit we get from our teachers. When we see the world with the eyes of the Buddha, and know that he is always thinking of how to lead us, we can find innumerable teachers, and know to show our gratitude to them.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

Lee: Tanaka

Tanaka’s Interpretation of Nippon Kokutai

What is Nippon Kokutai? It is the national substance, national principles, the national form. It is a fundamental social idea, a Gemeinschaft, on which the political state and the social system depend for ultimate authority. It is the moral path which enables Japan alone to transmit universal justice to posterity. It is not a form of government. A country without kokutai is an unfinished country; it is founded on no principles, its basis is military or industrial power, and its people live parasitic lives which are totally dependent upon arms and money. But the case of Japan is quite different. Japan is a unique country, for alone among the nations it is based upon kokutai. It exemplifies ideal peace, and its heavenly task is to spread the truth of kokutai.

The substance of kokutai, Tanaka asserted, could be divided into three constituents: 1. Happiness (the sum of national blessing accumulated by ancestors); 2. Wisdom (the sum of national wisdom amassed by ancestors); and 3. Right (the sum of national loyalty cultivated by the imperial descendants). (‘Glory’ is sometimes used in place of ‘wisdom’, ‘righteousness’ in place of ‘right’.) These ideas, amplifications of Tanaka’s interpretation of the Nihongi, suggest that by and large his basic nationalistic inclinations were probably fixed as early as the 1903 speech in which he alluded to the same three principles.

Japan’s “heavenly task” was, Tanaka declared, from the outset not limited to the islands of Japan alone; the departure of Emperor Jimmu for the east marked the beginning of Japan’s movement into the world at large. The country was, indeed, founded for the benefit of the whole world, and it was not too much to say that Perry’s arrival was a call upon Japan to distribute abroad the blessings of its unique moral qualities. The world began and ended with Japan, and if the country were truly understood, mankind would exist in peace and harmony. …

The actual work of bringing the nations of the world to the day of peace involved two stages: the first, “spiritual absorption” (the extension of kokutai in order to enlighten the minds of men) ; and the second, “military pacification” (a sort of negative guarantee of justice through Japan’s control of the “lawless and disobedient” people of the world). The peace which was the final goal called for the submission of the entire planet to the beneficent overlordship of the Emperor of Japan. To this end, every country save Japan should be disarmed, and only the exemplar, the one region already enjoying the sublimity which was the Way of the Emperor, could be allowed to make decisions affecting the rest of mankind.

Nichiren and Nationalism

Daily Dharma, d13b

Daily Dharma – Aug. 25, 2023

He satisfied himself with what little he earned.
He did not wish to get anything more.
He did not notice the priceless gem
Fastened inside his garment.

These verses are part of a story told by Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and other disciples in Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. It is about a man whose friend gives him a jewel while he is asleep. Not realizing he has this treasure, the man returns to his ordinary life, desperate to make a living and satisfy his ordinary desires. The story shows how we live when we forget about the jewel of Buddha nature we carry with us.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

LS32

Day 30

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs

Day 30 Text with annotationsPlay MP3

Having last month considered the question asked by Medicine-King Bodhisattva, we consider the Buddha’s response to Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

[He said to the Buddha:]

“World-Honored One! These dhārānis, these divine spells, have already been uttered by six thousand and two hundred million Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. Those who attack and abuse this teacher of the Dharma should be considered to have attacked and abused those Buddhas.”

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha praised Medicine-King Bodhisattva, saying:

“Excellent, excellent, Medicine-King! You uttered these dhārānis in order to protect this teacher of the Dharma out of your compassion towards him. You will be able to give many benefits to all living beings.”

The Daily Dharma for Oct. 1, 2022, offers this:

Thereupon Śākyamuni Buddha praised Medicine-King Bodhisattva, saying: “Excellent, excellent, Medicine-King! You uttered these dhāraṇīs in order to protect this teacher of the Dharma out of your compassion towards him. You will be able to give many benefits to all living beings.”

The Buddha makes this declaration to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in Chapter Twenty-Six of the Lotus Sūtra. The dhāraṇīs are promises made in a language that only Medicine-King and other protective beings understand. When we recite these promises from the Lotus Sūtra, we remind those beings of their vows. We also awaken our natures to protect all beings, and create benefits both for those beings and ourselves.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com

Lee: Tanaka

The Necessary New Faith of Nichirenism

[For Tanaka t]he world was in the period of the Latter Days of the Law, and it was already fully evident that the only faith suitable for the times was that of the Lotus Sutra, that is, Nichiren Buddhism. But not, it should be understood, the religion of the Nichiren temples. What the times demanded, and what Tanaka had already called for, was a reformed Nichiren church. Now, for the first time, Tanaka suggested that the new faith should be Nichirenism (Nichiren shugi)—the principles of Nichiren Buddhism in the context of Japanese nationalism.

This phrase is of great importance, for it became the accepted identification for Tanaka’s religio-political theories. Nichiren shugi has a somewhat more “scientific” ring to it than the phrase generally used to designate the established Nichiren order, with its overtones of faith and piety, and it conveys fairly accurately Tanaka’s interpretations of the teachings of Nichiren in a context of nationalism. If the nuances are appreciated, Nihiren shugi can be said to epitomize Tanaka’s thought. The word appears constantly in all of his works after about 1906, and it continues in use today as the official definition of the religion of the Kokuchūkai. Nichirenism, then, was the means of binding Tanaka’s patriotism and religion into a logical entity. When Nichiren spoke of Japan’s role as the savior of the world (through assertive proselytization of the true faith), he was amplifying and clarifying goals and methods already set forth in the Nihongi; his call for an aggressive policy of expansion was a reverberation of the earlier rallying cry of Emperor Jimmu as he headed eastward to subdue the barbarians and spread the culture of the Yamato civilization.

These pronouncements of 1903-4, and especially the first use of ‘Nichirenism’ to define Tanaka’s thought, mark the dividing line, according to the late Satomi Kishio, son of Tanaka Chigaku by his second wife and head of the Satomi Research Institute, between his father’s career as an advocate of religion with strong nationalistic emphases and his career as a devotee of a nationalism rooted firmly in religious principles.

Nichiren and Nationalism